While NAAGA respects the authority of the President Of The United States to nominate whomever they please to head certain federal organizations, we are troubled by the circumstances of the nomination of Steven Dettelbach for the position of ATF Director. The interim director, Marvin Richardson, is a qualified individual with over 30 years of experience with the ATF. He worked his way up from field agent to his current position and also happens to be African American. With the nomination of Steven Dettelbach, this will be the second time that Mr. Richardson has been passed over for the highest position within the bureau. As if that were not troubling enough, Mr. Richardson was demoted seemingly without cause only yesterday, which makes him ineligible for the role of director. While we cannot say with certainty why Mr. Richardson has been passed over twice for directorship and has been currently demoted, the pattern and speed of these actions has the appearance of being racially motivated and/or politically expedient.

Like all Americans, we want a fair and transparent process for the selection of our government leadership as we believe this is the best way to ensure that only the most qualified individuals lead our government. At this time, we are doubtful that such a fair and transparent process has taken place in the nomination of an ATF Director.